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Cooking from A to Zest DVD

​ We know a lot of good home cooks. They clip, bookmark and try recipes, watch endless hours of food shows, love to eat out and talk about the next trend in food. Their cooking is good and they want it to be great, but something is missing. The recipe collections and food shows pass along ingredients with directions but not behind the scene know how.

The recently released DVD Cooking from A to Zest promises to make up for the lack of know how and teach you to cook like a pro. The basic yet essential techniques and fundamentals of cooking taught at culinary schools are presented in this 4 volume (over 8 hours!) DVD set.

Find out more after the jump.

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Classes are over. Finally. Not sure how other classes do it, but we went out with a bang (or should I say blaze). One of the students started a fire in the restaurant as he was preparing to make crepes suzette at the next to last service. True to form for our particular class. No doubt the instructors were ready for us to return the next day so we could join in the champagne toast and head out.

I was a bit taken aback by the amount of emotion that some of the students expressed. As I expected, there were a few that I bonded with...and a few that I was ready to leave weeks before. It's highly unlikely that I will ever see most of them again (unless someone can find a way to convince me to go to graduation).

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To me, hospitality implies the caring treatment of strangers. And choosing to work in this industry should mean at least putting some effort into giving your customers what they want. After all, we want them to return for another visit...don't we?

Surprisingly, the school restaurant staff (read: my classmates and teachers) have less compassion for the guests than I expected. Equally true for those in the kitchen and the front of the house.

Guess I should have realized what I was in for when, on the first day of operations class, the chef instructor said, "The customer is usually wrong."

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I love gaining insight into someone else's life, particularly when I get a chance to understand the nuances of their jobs or relationships (5+ decades old and I'm still trying to make sense of the world.) Working as a restaurant host and server for a few weeks offered up a few revelations that only an insider would ordinarily know.

Most disturbing concept? The guests are our lab rats. (Maybe - hopefully - that's just because we are a school-based restaurant.)

Easiest way to make a good impression? Say hello. (Not being greeted immediately is the #1 complaint people have about restaurant service.)

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It's everything I was afraid it might be. Hot. Sweaty. Loud. Stressful. With the only redeeming value being the rush you get - that is, if you are the type of person that thrives on frenzy and survival.

Better than sex, said one of my classmates. Don't believe it. You do feel the energy rise (as the expeditor starts calling out order more quickly), the wakening of all your nerve endings (as you start to cook or plate several things at once) and a relief when it's all over...but somehow I miss the joyous release.

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Being a chef is more than just knowing how to cook. It's about knowing how to manage a restaurant (or other food business) and deal with the public. So we've got a 3-week stint working the front of the house.

Host. Server. Busser. Wine steward. With only 6 of us and an average of 40+ lunch covers each day, that's about one or two jobs more than this motley crew of aspiring chefs can handle. And, for some reason, I seem to end up serving and bussing, even if I am assigned to a different job.

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Some of the ways I cook at home were bound to change once I started culinary school. I expected that. I wanted it. What surprised me was how significantly a few small tweaks changed the quality of my food. I've already talked about using homemade stock, clarified butter, kosher salt and white pepper. Here are a few other things that have had a great impact. (Be gentle - it's hard to admit a few of these.)

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Call me naïve. I assumed the majority of restaurant appetizers and entrees were cooked after the food was ordered. (Yeah, I know what they say about assume.) But it's quite the opposite. At least in my limited experience.

Most of the food to be served is prepped before service begins, and is either placed in a steam table (sauces, rice, mashed potatoes, polenta) or is reheated (without being re-cooked) when it's ordered. That's called flashing.

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Well, our classroom hours are over. It's on to the restaurant, which is as close to a rite of passage as you get in culinary school.

Our group was scheduled to spend the first few weeks in the kitchen. I felt ready to face the challenge. After all, I learned how to cook and I was picking up the jargon. "86" (as in "we're out of" the fish, for example). "Back of the house" (the kitchen, as opposed to the "front of the house" where the servers, bussers, wine steward and host work). "On the line" (working one of the food stations).

The first day was spent reviewing kitchen rules (no cell phones topped the list), basic cooking techniques for proteins and starches, and discussing the importance of teamwork. You know, stuff like you're only as good as the weakest cook (so step in and help) and there's no I in team.

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Life's full of changes. I get that, but this class seems to be morphing at warp speed. And I'm talking major life changes.

One of my classmates took a several month leave of absence to have back surgery.

We lost one to excessive absence.

Another asked me to recommend a lawyer. While he was out to dinner the week before last, he was approached by police and charged with felony assault -- the unexpected result of a bar fight he had several months ago. He didn't seem particularly rattled; after all, it was hardly his first confrontation with the law. The officer even called him a career criminal. (Definitely a new category of friend for me.)

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